Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, with their director Graham Ross, wound up their North American tour with music for Advent at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, Cleveland, with music by Howells, Britten, Tavener, Rutter, and Roderick Williams's haunting "O Adonai et Dux domus Israel."

The Coro de Manos Blancas (White Hands Choir) of Venezuela, one of the leading group of the Special Education Programme, was founded by Johnny Gómez in 1995 to include children and young adults with disabilities. The White Hands Choir is part of the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs, known as “El Sistema”.

For this Christmas concert we were transported from the Auckland Philharmonia’s usual venue at the Auckland Town Hall to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell. It was interesting to compare the sound of the orchestra; the cathedral has a slight echo that seemed to boost the richness of the orchestra’s sound, at times (like at the climax of Bizet’s Farandole) becoming almost shockingly loud.